Dr. Cisse Ramata Sissoko Fascinated by Instove Innovative Technologies

Dr. Cisse looking at a pot boiling on a 60L

Stove.

Assitan Sylla Traore Reporting

Yesterday, we had the honor and pleasure to host Dr. Cisse Ramata Sissoko. Originally from Mali, Dr. Cisse Ramata came to visit me and my children in Eugene, Oregon from Washington D.C where she traveled last week to meet with the current President of Mali H.E. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on the sidelines of the U.S.-African Leaders Summit. I have told her about the work of InStove; but because it is better to see once than hear hundred times, I invited Dr. Cisse to take an InStove tour.

Dr. Cisse graduated from the University of Georgia in 2012 with a PHD in Poultry Science where she researched the effects of low energy balance on reproductive performance. Her second project was into the effects of introducing millet into poultry diet. 

Adam Creighton, InStove Deputy Director demonstrating 

a sterilizer for medical instruments to Dr. Cisse

She is very dynamic and likes creative solutions to real problems; and she was amazed with our improved cookstoves and allied technologies and told us she has been thinking about a similar solution to the issue of smoke emission and wood consumption for women cooks in Mali.

“I wish that you could see inside my brain. I have imagined something like this for so long, and now I am seeing it.” said Dr. Cisse enthusiastically.

Because she was born and raised in Mali like me, she understands the values and need for this stove. “This needs to be successful,” said Dr. Cisse. “It is too important!” "There are so many places where your stoves could be used in Mali!" she said. For example, people selling live chicken at each local market in Bamako could use the stove to remove feathers from the chickens. She is excited and promised to explore InStove innovations and opportunities for implementing in projects in Mali.

Adam Creighton, showing a briquette Presse to
Dr. Cisse

She is thinking about presenting our stove to IPR (Institut Polytechique Rural), an agricultural school in Mali, where she meet a lady who cooks for the student’s body as well as women selling in the street.  

She was also impressed with our sterilizer for medical instruments which is designed for use in rural clinics that do not have access to electricity or in urban hospitals that suffer from electricity outages.

Dr. Ramata Cisse Sissoko (left) and Fred Colgan, the Executive Director of InStove

In addition, Dr. Cisse, together with other Malians, is working on a waste management project which is a big challenge right now for Mali. She thinks that Instove's briquette press could be very useful for that project. She suggested to InStove to join hands together in order to launch a briquette press pilot project in Mali.